That was fun. Two great car's running so close. When I was in junior high, my older brother bought a new '72 340 Duster. I loved that car. It was such a fun car. A couple of year's later in high school, my close friend bought a '68 Firebird with a 350. Very fun too. I miss those day's. Car's were so effing cool back then.
@@lunchsack6861 I own a 2009 Challenger RT and a '71 340 Challenger convertible. I have several friend's who have modern Challenger's and Mustang's. I prefer old school to modern. Different strokes as they say.
@@jayschmahl9206 Agreed, the New "Muscle Cars" are actually quite quicker and better performing than the old Muscle Cars, But there's just something about the old school cars from back in the day. Ain't nothing better than going through the gears of a Ford Top Loader with a big ole 429 Super Cobra Jet up front. Yeah, I'm a Ford guy, always was, always will be.
@@oveidasinclair982 PSMCDR Rules allow a overbore from 0.70 and a compression bump from +1.5 extra points. So this engine could have a 10:1 compression and still be inside the rules.
This is a pretty good matchup...the 3.08 gears I think, really hurt the Firebird. The times for both actually seem believable. Back in the day, the average musclecar would typically run in the low to mid 14s, stock. That Demon seemed like a great bargain ....you could get a lot of performance for the money! Great race...thanks for posting.
@@bhaggen I had a 72 Dodge Demon that I had purchase in 1976 that the previous owner had put it on a Dyno and it made 340 Hp. When he stated that, I said you must mean torque and they tested it on a raceway and it ran up to 132 mph top speed (Oval Track), I had the Demon up to that speed on a stretch on a highway on RT 1. Even though it was a Dodge, the motor was Plymouth Blue. My Demon was a four speed with a 3:91 rear. That was my favorite car of all time. I purchase for $1,650 for a four year old car. Those were the days.
@@leonardbeaner2110 works out to about 6500 rpm in high gear. Must have been built or modded.... I would think but who knows those little bastards do wind out.
Exactly the same consistent times my 1970 Duster 340 ran ... 14.2s all day ... but that was with 10.5 compression so I’m guessing this one was rebuilt to ‘70 spec.
You don't understand Poncho power. Pontiac 400s are done by 5000 rpm. They make a lot of mid range torque. It isn't a Chevy that can use some deep gears. Put 3.73s in that Firebird and you will slow it down. He can either tune to the 3.08 or find a 3.23.
@@thegreenerthemeaner Yeah in High School my buddy had a 69 GTO with a 400, was mostly stock except Headers, Exhaust, MSD 6A, electronic ignition, Holley 750, 10" 3000 stall converter, and a Crane Cam that was basically the same cam as Ram Air 4 Engine, and he had 3.55 Gears, i remember by 6000 rpm it was out of steam.
Great video! That firebird had pretty steep gears, I bet it would run alot better if the gear ratio was lower, although I've never had any trouble with putting the hurt on some GM big blocks through the years, I've always loved my 340"s that's why they call them the giant killer. 😀
I'm going Demon w/3.91 - 3.91 GEARS!!!! & TorqueFlite 3 speed... Seems like under rated HP/torque figures but I'm a Firebird RAM Air fan over the Demon. My guys gonna loose
I had a 71 demon 👿 canary yellow with black racing stripes I had a good rear end and good gears, 340built, put it on a diet, and it became the big block killer 💯
I know that the 71 Demon had a stronger engine than the 72 but people in here are saying that the 70 340 was faster I had always thought the 71 was the strongest 340 I know that having the right heads makes all the difference I had a 74 Challenger with a 71 340 and it was quicker than my 440 Challenger!
@@lovethesmellofracefuelinth7374 .... any serious PMD guy you find on the streets prob will have an aftermarket PMD engine, 2,500 (ish)hp is the limit on the Aluminum blocks, the irons are into 3+. That being said, only a fool drags with highway gears.
Notice the higher mph with the Pontiac, though. Change the gears and the result would be different. Still, a win is a win, and both pretty close races.
@@lovethesmellofracefuelinth7374 You can use my comment anytime you want. "Mopar Don't Go Far" or everyone knows this one "Mostly Old Parts And Rust" that one works also. Feel free to use both.
I'ma a Mopar guy all the way, but I also love all that hot ole Detroit iron and are sweet machines. Yeah I was saying that earlier and miss his zany jokes, the narrator is funnier than heck and did a good job. Hope everything is okay with him 🙏🏼
Takes a Mopar to catch one and is a badass lil demon, those 340s are BB killers and punch hard. Has anyone heard what happen to the narrator, he hasn't been on several of the last uploads and miss his funny jokes
@@ghostrt1608 Pontiac V8s are just Pontiac V8s. The difference between a Pontuac 455, 400, and 350 is no more than that between a SBC 400, 350, and 302. Displacement and deck hight changes but they're essentially the same engine. The only reason Chevy has big blocks and small blocks is because they had 2 completely different engine families at the same time, one big and one small. Same with Mopar big blocks and small blocks. Two completely different engines sold at the same time.
Great turnout for the event lol! Dodge Demon 3, Firebird 0 despite the Semon being down 90hp to the Pontiac. It's the little engine that could! I had a gold '72 w. a 4 speed and 3.91 gears. Flip the air cleaner lid over for ram air and an easy 10hp. Mine would outrun anything under 400 CI on the street. Even beat a 454 Corvette in a stoplight drag race.
see what a 3:08 rear end does for you? Even the smog mobile Demon with a measly 8:5 to 1 compression beats it. At least he had 3:91’s to push it over the top barely.
You don't think it's still running it's 8.5:1 compression ratio do you, it will probably be running 1.5 points more in accordance with the pure stock rules.
@@Welcometofacsistube sure it is. It was one of the ways mfgs met emissions control at the time. Anything with power before ‘71 had decent compression. for a prepared pure stock car it ran poor times as did the FB shown.
@@Welcometofacsistube Any car you see on this channel that is part of Pure Muscle car drags is built with additional compression - pretty much guaranteed. Reviews from the day show that Dodge is capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 sec, from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.1 sec, from 0 to 160 km/h (100 mph) in 17.3 sec and the quarter mile drag time is 15.2 sec...
bought these kinds of cars used in my day did some stoplight take-offs the 340 was not bad against my 68 Mustang Windsor the biggest problem was the launch whoever had that figured out had the fast car the 50s cars weighed tons which helped wheel spin but hampered speed the 3:91 rear end and c6 trans was unbreakable putting long strong traction bars with air shock attached behind the axle pushing the track bars hard against the frame make sure your torque convertor was welded to the flex plate and drop into gear at 4000 rpm this was fast unbeatable
Back in 1978 in high school I almost bought a dodge demon dart for my first car. Thankfully I ended up buying a Pontiac 69 GTO. 400 , auto with 3.55 gears. Way better looking car with plenty of power. A guy at my high school had a 1970 340 Duster. He had a small cam, headers, thought it was fast. We lined up many times.,I beat him by 5-6 car lengths every time. Then raced his friends 69 Road Runner with a 383 , auto and 391 gears. Beat him by 3 lengths. Mopar or no car I will always take a Pontiac. I still have one today.
1/29/2024: My 1972 340 Challenger didn't have any balls. No HP & No Compression, But I did like it. My 1968,69,70, 440 magnums Did. "Station Wagon" Rear Gears on the Firebird. Good temperature & humidity for traction. Best Regards from "the future".
I had the 400 HO engine in a GTO. The HO engine had a bit more cam than the regular 400 (but not as much cam as RA3 or RA4). Combine that with a 3.08 rear and it's a poor combination. 3.55 needed at the very least. I had the 3.55 with the wide ratio 4 speed and it would leap off the line.
Back in the day had a guy that wanted to trade his '68 Firebird 400 4-speed convertible for my '72 RS/SS Camaro 350 4-speed car. I drove the Firebird and told him "no way!". I was shocked at how slow the car was.
Sorry mistake keying in. Anyway also a Holley 600 single feed and Hookers that ran a 13.7 at 105! We of course street raced and never got beat on the cruise. We raced built sbcs, mach Is, big block of all kinds. Yes the 340 is hated by all other makes! The giant killer!
Factory 4:33s in that 8.2 rear and yeah, that Bird would take flight ! My 68 bird Covert 400 runs in the low 12s with 4:11s with Turbo 400 trans and it's waaaay more heavy .
Weather forecast for today: mostly sunny with cool temperatures at 50° and a very gentle westward wind at 5 mph. At the end of the race we can also expect a brief shower of tears from the Pontiac fans, possibly progressing into a flash flood.
All export 1972 340's had high compression and some of those engines were used in domestic 1972 340 cars too. So in 1972 there were three 340 engines, high compression with a steel crankshaft, low compression with a steel crankshaft and low compression with a cast iron crankshaft. The fastest 1/4 mile Pontiac was the 1968 1/2 Ram Air II Firebird 400. The 1969 Ram Air IV Firebird 400 was heavier and slower.
14.50's with 3.08 rears is pretty good. With 4.11 rears the Poncho is a high 13-second car all day long but then it would be on a trailer like the Demon instead of out on the highway cruising.
I've owned many Pontiac's and many Mopar's and love them both. The Bird needed more gear and would have been a closer race. That Demon ran good for low comp
I drove my friend's '71 Demon 340 at the dragstrip years ago. It ran nearly identical times 14.1 to 14.2 @ 97mph. Mostly stock, column shift automatic, 3.23 axle, HE 268 cam in 120k mile, otherwise stock engine. No nitrous wanted or needed. If there had been nitrous you would have heard it in the audio.
340 ''A'' body hold there own with anything and that's a fact! This is NOT coming from a mopar man . I have wrenched on 3 different pontiac 400's (68,73,76) and was never impressed with there power which is weird because I know a guy with a 1966 389 pontiac which is a smaller version of a 400 and it runs like a scalded dog. Not running down a 400 either all I am saying is after doing some mods to one I was expecting a lot more than it offered but it seemed like a good driving/running engine.
The mid 70s 400 Pontiacs had 7.6:1 compression. No mods will do anything until you bump the compression up to 9.5 or more. The 389 probably came with 10.5:1
@@timsharpe3498 The 389 was also tri power. The 68 Firebird 400 my boss had that I wrenched on had no power but I am thinking now maybe when it was rebuilt it had low compression slugs put in the barrels.
@@wildrosegarage4208 Pontiac Tri Power systems are mostly for show. A factory Quadrajet setup flows better. Same for the Corvette tri power setups. The intake runners were very low profile to fit under the stock hood.
@@timsharpe3498 True but they offer even distribution and the guy with the 66 gto has now switched from tri power to a throttle body efi system and says it was way faster with tri power. I think it was a stupid swap the coolest thing about the car was factory tri power.
Pontiac crybabies coming in 3...............2................1........... Expect the dislikes to be insane on this one. Pontiac guys cry on every video on this channel even when there's a win.
Always wondered why according to the cubic inches it wasn't the same horsepower at least it's too bad too that's a 340 with 200 and something horsepower that blows should have 340 horsepower then that puppy would get up and scoot. Either way I'm sure it's no slouch those 340's we're pretty quick especially the ones that were before this one two or three years back.
I'm betting that they are rare due to 1. Low resale value ( back in the day ) 2. High insurance cost . 3. High cost of O.E.M. sheet metal 4. Rapid corrosion due to poor factory standards .
It has soft gearing because they spec'd it for cruising. There. Figured it out for them. That's a truely stock car not one built to class rules like we often see here.
I'M GOING TO LEAVE A DISLIKE BECAUSE I'M A PONTIAC FAN AND THEREFORE ACT LIKE IN A VERY IMMATURE MANNER. I CANNOT SEPARATE MY LOVE OF WATCHING THESE VIDEOS FROM MY DISLIKE OF SEEING A PONTIAC LOSE AND THEREFORE WILL DISLIKE THIS VIDEO ENDLESSLY. NO CURRENT YOUNG PERSON EVEN KNOWS PONTIAC USED TO BE AN AUTO MANUFACTURER SO I'M GOING TO USE A CONDESCENDING TONE DESCRIBING THE NON-SUPERIORITY OF PONTIAC. I'M SURE THAT WILL HELP GARNER POPULARITY FOR THIS EXTINCT BRAND AND DRAG RACING IN GENERAL. WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I NEED A DIAPER CHANGE.
Nice job by the Demon but a pathetic performance by the Firebird. The car is 60’ ing like a turd due to the freeway friendly 3.08 rear gear. Car should easily cut 3-4 tenths with a decent rear gear.
That was all on the driver of the bird... reaction time not the greatest.. look at speed , bird has it every time.. getting off line slow... fun to watch these cars..😊
Duster and Demon 340's have to be close to maximum bang-for-the-buck awards. That Demon driver needs to quit staging until his opponent pre-stages though (not very nice....).
I whip out my giant chicken tender. Your eyes widen with anticipation. "Wow, it's so thick" you exclaim, mouth watering. "Yeah, I guess it is rather filling" I reply. Little do you know I'm about to pull out a plate full of biscuits ready to be devoured.
In the left corner the Phoenix rising from the ashes of Pontiac. And in the right corner the car with a name so diabolical it scared the shit out of Christian groups in the 70s Let's get ready to Rumbleeeeeeee!
They really screwed the 340 up with the smog crap an the government sticking their nose in the automobile business, Chrysler came out with the 360 that replaced the 340 ran one with the 360 an smoked him with my ,70 340.
I've been 12.40s with a 3.23 gear and a Q-jet. If had has the stock 12" convertor that is his down fall. I picked up a 1/2 second by going to a stock convertor to a PTC unit in one of my cars with a low compression (8.1) Pontiac 350.
The definition of what’s allowed to be considered pure stock I’ll tell you right now these times of the stock vehicles doesn’t match up to the real deal back in the early 70s. A 14:00 wasn’t something all kuldip do. See where I’m going with this
14.2 from a "stock" demon- not likely. Takes around one HP per 10 lbs to get to 14 flat. Oh and its not lbs ft, its ft lbs. on par with the metric system.
@@will7its still ambiguous. I assume that you are trying to say that old cars are too expensive? Looks like you haven’t paid attention for a while. Values are plummeting.
My winter daily driver is a 2006 Gran Prix, paid $500 for it, the massive rust was included at no extra cost. The fuel line rusted through last week so it was spraying gas all over. Relatively easy fix for me. Did three wheel bearings on it last year. Gas pedal and throttle body a couple months before the wheel bearings. Its a decent car to sacrifice to the salt gods here in Michigan. Nice heated leather seats, cruise, power windows. Might get one more winter out of it, might not, the rust is getting bad. My summer daily driver, that is out right now because the salt is gone and its 50 today, is a 1965 GTO. Paid $1500 for a very rusty rolling husk in 2007, spent 3 years and roughly $15k rebuilding it. It has an iron headed 11.5:1 455 running E85 (around 550hp 600ftlbs), FiTech EFI, Jeep Grand Cherokee steering box for a faster ratio, WS6 Trans Am front sway bar, 70 GTO rear bar, disc brakes up front (rears going on soon), and a hidden stereo with two amps, two 12" subs, and six speakers. I've had over drive transmissions in it, 700R4s, right now it has a Th350 because I have a driveshaft that will work with it, that 455 eats 700s for lunch. I use it to tune E85 carb conversions I do for friends and research/testing, so it has a wideband O2 in the other collector. It has around 30k miles on it with several 1000 mile road trips under its belt. Oher than eating weak overdrives, it rarely has an issue, and is dead nuts reliable. I need to swap the 3.42 gears for 3.08s though, without the OD its turning 3k at 70mph, no need for that with a 455. The GTO handles better, stops better, and is one hell of a lot faster than the 06 GP with its 3800V6. Mid 11s is decent for a daily driver on Cooper radials I think. Not quite as comfy with its original 65 seats I got from a parts car LeMans, but they work. I know what I would rather drive and be seen in. 17mpg with $1.90 fuel for the GTO, 27 with the GP at $3.20 a gallon for 87 octane camel whiz. the GTO is still cheaper while being a lot faster.. lol. The really bad aero of the 65 is why it only gets 17. The 71 Formula would be getting around 24 on E85 with the same engine, it has a hell of a lot less drag. Now if both of those cars were in a collision, that GP would cut through the GTO like it was warm butter. I know driving the 65 is like cruising around with death waiting for some idiot in an appliance on wheels to kill me. They will walk way with at most a few scratches, they will wash me out of my car with a firehose. I still know what I would much rather drive. Its why I built the thing, and its why I built it the way I did. The new cars are nice comfy disposable appliances. Not many will be worth much in 40 years. Maybe the ones selling for $70k right now, like Hellcats, GT500s, ZO6s etc. I wonder how much I could get out of my GTO... if I was stupid enough to sell it I mean. Starting on a 69 GTO this fall, right now its a rolling shell with no front sheet metal, engine, or trans. It will be faster and handle better than the 65 does, for about $10k. Should be my summer fun toy next June or July, unless I decide to do the Gasser thing with the 65 LeMans parts car first. It won't handle well as a gasser, but it will be fun. Gotta get the 72 Cutlass off the rotisserie first though, I need the shop space. Also the 6.0 swap and body work done on the 76 C10 for a parts chaser and trailer dragging machine. I could build a very nice 400 or 455 for the cost of swapping a junkyard LS engine into my old C10. The LS is orders of magnitude better than the sbc and bbc that I had in that poor truck, god chevy engines are junk. No wonder everyone thinks muscle cars are so incredibly slow and unreliable, they think they are all powered by chevys. I tell people 'Enjoy driving the Camry' or whatever they have as they wish they could drive an old muscle car, but the wife won't let them buy one. They gotta cope somehow, so they tell themselves how much better the new stuff they paid $30k for used is. I build mine. Because I can. I drive them because I build them to drive every damn day. Well now I have to go try to get the bleeder screws out of the calipers on the 2000 Silverado, after replacing all the brake lines from the MC to the ABS motor, to the calipers.. They are only $100 a piece at NAPA, the old car calipers are easy to rebuild with an $8 seal kit. i suppose it would cost you guys the same no matter what when you take your car to the shop to get work done.
I have to agree with Lunch pack, I like older cars just for the fact that they had style, I guess they r like people in some ways....they don't have much style either & the cars b4 the 80s didn't all have a big computer running the thing, carburetor, motor,transmission,alternator, batter & a big ass gas tank!! Those day were fun, but its always fun to waste a lot of fuel l& make la lot of smog. Just not really a good thing today. We r living in New times now & we about to pay the price for being so God damn stupid.